Jazz lover artist Muvaffak (Maffy) Falay worked with many jazz bands throughout his life and traveled the world, always emphasizing his "Turkish" identity.
Muvaffak (Maffy) Falay was born in 1930. With the support of his aunt, who is a teacher, he graduated from primary school with difficulty. He was sent to Kuşadası, where his father was the director of agriculture, to study. He started working as a trumpet player in the Kuşadası Band at the age of 12. Everyone in his family was into music. His father, who was fond of Turkish and European music, played instruments such as ney and cümbüş. His older brother was a mandolin artist.
Muvaffak "Maffy" Falay (30 August 1930 – 22 February 2022) was a Turkish jazz trumpeter.
When he came to his mother in Karşıyaka at the age of 13, he joined the Izmir Band as a permanent trumpet player and started to receive a salary there. In 1947, with the encouragement of Erdoğan Çaplı, he passed the conservatory exam in Ankara and started his second-grade education. He studied piano and trumpet for 7 years. During his education at the conservatory, he took the stage as a trumpet player with Aydemir Mete, the double bass player, the pianist İlham Gencer and the soloist Ayten Alpman.
He joined the Dizzy Gillespie Reunion Orchestra in 1970. The world-famous jazzist Dizzy Gillespie's evaluation of Muvaffak Falay, whom he listened to in Ankara in 1956, as a trumpet player comparable to the famous trumpet players of the jazz world Miles Davis and Roy Eldridge, in his article published in the magazine Down Beat, had a great impact.
He went abroad and joined the Cologne Radio Orchestra in Germany in 1960. He toured many times in Europe with this orchestra. In 1967, he founded the "Sevda Group" in Stockholm with Okay Temiz.
In 1985, he started his own jazz band and started giving concerts. He released the albums Sevda in 1992, Wesix in 1986, Maffy Falay Sextet in 1993, and Hank'sTune in 1996. In 2005, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award given by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts at the 12th Istanbul Jazz Festival. In 2011, his statue was erected in Kuşadası as part of the Golden Pigeon Music Competition.
While spending the last period of his life on the IMM Kayışdağı campus, he fell ill with a brain tumor and died at the age of 92. In 2011, Kuşadası Municipality placed the Maffy Falay statue at the Castle Gate.
Jazz lover artist Muvaffak (Maffy) Falay worked with many jazz bands throughout his life and traveled the world, always emphasizing his "Turkish" identity.
Muvaffak Falay said in an interview, "After this age, all I want is to settle down in a quiet place, harmonize Turkish melodies and train talented young trumpet players. I'm thinking of returning to Kuşadası." After this statement, Falay, whose statue was erected in the city where he grew up, said that he felt indescribable happiness and pride.
In an interview with him, Falay proudly stated that he had the Turkish flag placed among the flags of the countries on the cover of his big band album under the direction of Kenny Clarke and Francy Boland, which he described as "the greatest orchestra", and said, "There is the soul in Turkish music, there is the soul in jazz."